Policy Advocacy

New Media Rights Executive Director Art Neill, James Thomas (CWSL ’24) and Assistant Director Erika Lee teamed up to write about an issue that many legal minds are grappling with: how does copyright law apply to the training of artificial intelligence? The rampant popularity of generative artificial intelligence in the last few years has resulted in a number of different lawsuits related to AI, including its use, training and the resulting outputs.  

Our latest article, A Framework for Applying Copyright Law to the Training of Textual Generative Artificial Intelligence, was recently published in the University of Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal’s summer edition. The article delves into the complex legal landscape surrounding the use of copyrighted works to train generative artificial intelligence models. 

Executive Director Art Neill and Assistant Director Erika Lee recently spoke at the 21^st Annual Media and Entertainment Law Conference at Southwestern Law School. Co-hosted by the Media Law Resource Center (MLRC), the conference brought together renowned experts to discuss current issues in the entertainment and media law fields.

Neill and Lee moderated a breakout discussion panel about the public domain.  As more and more high-profile works and characters enter the public domain each year, what can and can’t be done with this intellectual property? How do you distinguish between versions of a character? What happens when a character is also a trademark? How important are public domain works for training artificial intelligence? Do works created by artificial intelligence simply enter the public domain upon creation?  We addressed many of these questions throughout our breakout session. READ MORE

New Media Rights recently presented a workshop at the REC Innovation Lab at San Diego Miramar College! Assistant Director Erika Lee and Student Fellow Deanna Maayaa were on site to talk about copyright, contracts, and other legal issues common to startups.

“We had a wonderful time presenting at the REC Innovation Lab! Many of the participants were entrepreneurs, and our presentation served as a reminder of some of the important legal considerations they needed to take as they move forward with their projects” said Student Fellow Deanna Maayaa.

We focused on common areas where it can be easy to make mistakes and talked about ways that budding entrepreneurs can prevent some of these common missteps early on. Along the way, we also identified moments where it’s probably a good time to reach out to a lawyer. The event was hybrid, available in person and via zoom, and the turnout was great! READ MORE

Giving Tuesday is here! Please take a moment now and make a donation. In 2023, New Media Rights worked hard to provide important legal services to hundreds of artists, creators, and innovators throughout the world.

This year, we submitted extensive comments to the Copyright Office about generative artificial intelligence. We argued that the use of copyrighted material as training inputs for text generative artificial intelligence is likely a fair use under current law. We are particularly excited to continue our work related to artificial intelligence in the coming year.

We are also grateful for a $33,300 grant from the City of San Diego’s Economic Development Department to support our work with local San Diego small businesses and tech startups.

Please take a few moments to donate now to ensure that the essential legal services that we provide to hundreds of artists, creators and innovators throughout the world continue to exist. READ MORE